Dramatic video has emerged of a firefighter catching a child as the child’s terrified mother is forced to drop the tot from three floors up to save it from a burning building.
Helmet camera footage has been released of the Decatur, Georgia, Jan. 3 apartment fire during which the DeKalb County Fire Rescue saved the lives of 12 people, including eight children – a number of whom had to tossed to safety from the fully engulfed building.
In the video, third-generation firefighter Capt. Scott Stroup of the DeKalb County Fire Rescue can be seen catching a 5-year-old child dropped by their mother who was climbing down a ladder from the third-floor balcony of the Avondale Forest Apartments.
Stroup catches the child, before going down on one knee to get the wailing child out of harms way.
Moments before the firefighter’s rescue was caught on tape, his colleague Captain Jackie Peckrul was thrown a tiny baby – the other child’s sibling – as she ran up the ladder towards the blaze.
“As she was starting to go up the ladder, she gets tossed a blue blanket – it just so happens there was a baby inside,” Capt. Eric Jackson told CNN on Monday.
“It was literally all hands on deck. Before we had even put a hose line on the fire, we had firefighters that were bringing adults out, we had firefighters that were catching babies, one after another,” Jackson told local Georgia news outlets on Monday.
“I mean we were catching babies like footballs, literally,” he added.
All 12 victims, who ranged from one-month-old to 36 years in age, were transported to the hospital with minor injuries and “should be fine,” according to Jackson.
Among the many who applauded the heroic actions of the firefighters on social media, actor Denis Leary, who famously portrayed a New York City firefighter on the FX drama Rescue Me, tweeted the video of the DeKalb County Fire Rescue team.